by Lloyd, Tom
Ahead of him Daken screamed, and foamed bloodily at the mouth where he’d bitten his own tongue. He gave no thought to tactics as he threw himself at one Menin after the next, determined to massacre his way through the enemy ranks. The young marshal was forced to keep back or be cut down himself as he followed in Daken’s wake, running through those men who wheeled away from the dervish hacking madly in all directions.
The Menin didn’t stay to fight. Within minutes they were sounding the retreat, trying to batter a path through their comrades. The Narkang had discovered over the last few weeks the Menin light cavalry hated close-quarters fighting, and without space to move, their height advantage meant nothing. Men lay screaming all around, many with the spears that had driven them from their saddles still lodged in their bellies.
Just as he began to see daylight through the thinning crowd of Menin, Dassai slipped on a bloody tuft of grass, and by the time he recovered his balance, the bulk of the Menin were throwing their weapons away and fleeing after their reluctant Litse allies. A few Narkang soldiers pursued, but they were on foot and soon gave up the chase, panting and bellowing Daken’s name as they ran back to their colleagues.
‘Back to the horses!’ Dassai shouted at the top of his voice. Fatigue meant the first few words were lost on the bulk of their men, but once again, they were expecting the order. The rest of the Menin would not be far away, and if they didn’t escape now they’d be the ones on the receiving end of a charge.
‘Run, you fuckers!’ Daken roared, staring after the fleeing cavalry, ‘run and tell your lord I’ll do the same ta him!’
‘General!’ Dassai yelled.
Daken whirled around, and for a moment his eyes were filled with blind fury, then it subsided and the white-eye gave him a bloody grin, sweat and blood running from his bald head. There was still a stub of arrow protruding from his left arm and a shallow cut running along his cheek.
‘Dassai,’ he laughed, raising his axe, ‘first blood to us!’
‘It’s who gets the last I’m worried about,’ Dassai said, only half-joking as he watched the advancing Menin.
‘Oh, piss on you, that was the best fun I’ll have all year,’ the general said, slapping Dassai on the shoulder as he passed. Daken paused and leaned close to Dassai’s ear. ‘Now shift yourself, ya bastard!’ he roared at the top of his voice, and with that, the white-eye set off towards the abandoned horses, laughing mightily all the way.
Dassai spared one last look at the rest of the Menin Army, looming large on the moor ahead.
That’s the last we’ll run, he promised them silently. Next time, it’s to the death.
CHAPTER 35
Doranei watched the grainy light of dawn creep over Tairen Moor, his hand never leaving his sword. The Menin were out there, a dark smear in the distance - both nebulous and threatening. He couldn’t help wondering if the fears of the many had come true and they truly were an unstoppable force led by an invincible warrior.
He tried to find the fear inside him, but it wouldn’t come. The King’s Man looked down at the discarded jug of wine at his feet. The contents spilled red, soaking into the earth and wood of the rampart. The wine had tasted like ashes in his mouth - like the pyres of Scree, or the shattered streets of Byora where Sebe had died. He didn’t crave alcohol, not this morning. The feeling thrumming through his bones was something else, an angry impatience.
‘This is another man’s war,’ he said dully, nudging the jug with his toe. ‘Let them come, and quickly.’
‘It’s our war now,’ Veil reminded Doranei as he drank from a waterskin. ‘It weren’t the Farlan brought this plague upon the kingdom; it were coming sure enough anyway.’
Doranei didn’t reply. He didn’t want to speak what was on his mind, to hand the burden on to his friend, but it was there at the back of his mind. He was tired of this all, tired of the years of struggle and seeing precious little victory from it.
Maybe all that drinking’s finally paid off, he thought sourly, it’s finally managed to numb what’s inside.
The Menin had made camp a few miles away, not close enough to contain the Narkang Army, but still a threat. General Daken had arrived mid-afternoon with the news of one final engagement: one little piece of hurt delivered for the thousands murdered in their advance. His scouts had confirmed the scryers’ intelligence: their baggage train was small and their supplies were dwindling.
Doranei leaned forward over the rampart wall, looking past the fire-dampening charms inscribed on the outside and down to the ditch below it. In a few hours he would be killing men at this very spot, spilling their blood and battering them back into the ditch. This was the heart of the army’s defences; a fortress of earth and fresh-cut logs a hundred yards across, intended to meet the crashing wave of Menin infantry and hold firm.
Behind him was the mound of earth where Endine and Cetarn had been hammering stakes into the ground. Only Isak and Mihn went there now, sometimes accompanied by the witch of Llehden or Legana, but Doranei couldn’t imagine what they were up to. The company of guards was still stationed there, to keep all others away, but he’d never seen the three do anything remotely of interest. Isak had stood there for several hours yesterday, just staring into the distance as the ghost hour came and went.
He turned and looked past the squat central tower of the fort. Cetarn had inexplicably chained the mound to the ground, which was now the centre point of a dozen or so buried tendrils, each one a hundred feet or more in length. It was dark now, but Doranei could make out the tattered grey cloak Isak wore. He elbowed Veil and pointed.
‘Aye, back there again,’ Veil said. ‘Harnessing the energies o’ the Land - isn’t that what Cetarn called it?’
The white-eye was a strange figure within the massive army camp. Almost everyone else wore armour, but Isak still shuffled about in ragged clothes, and used his tattered cloak to hide his scars from the rest of the Land. Doranei didn’t know whether Isak even owned any armour any more - although surely the king’s armourers could have beaten something out for him by now.
‘You reckon he’s drawing power from that heap of dirt?’ Doranei’s voice dropped to a whisper so the Kingsguard soldiers manning the wall couldn’t hear. ‘I got to say, I don’t think he’s the man we once knew.’
‘That doesn’t surprise me,’ Veil said. He grimaced at the thought of what Isak might have endured.
‘What if the king’s gambling on it though?’ Doranei said. ‘Why’s this all so secret? Not sure he’ll be calling down the storm any time soon these days.’
‘You rein that in,’ Veil said sharply. ‘I don’t give a damn what’s goin’ on in your head these days, there can’t be talk like that just before a battle!’
‘I didn’t mean it like that,’ Doranei protested grumpily, knowing he was in the wrong, ‘just not used to surprises, and now there’s a plan I ain’t party to.’
‘Well you’re the one walked away, and you ain’t a general; we ain’t soldiers. This ain’t our world, so our skills aren’t in demand here.’ Veil gave him a hard look. ‘Now shut the fuck up and don’t let me hear another word. No joke, Brother; you sounded like Ilumene for a moment there - Coran hears that shit and he’ll break you in pieces.’
Doranei gave a start, his mouth dropping open in surprise. As he replayed Veil’s words in his head he realised he’d been right. Doranei found himself recoiling from the realisation: Ilumene’s betrayal had been preceded by increasing resentment towards the king, and the assumption that his advice should always be sought, no matter what the situation.
The King’s Men were supposed to be faceless and silent, removed from politics and power, personal ambitions and desires foresworn ... Only Ilumene hadn’t been able to accept his place, one he’d embraced until he decided he stood above the rest.
Doranei found himself half a pace removed from the Brotherhood, and his thoughts had followed the same track - and Veil was right; Coran would kill him for taking even a step down that path.
The more he thought about it, the more Doranei realised he wouldn’t be able to blame the white-eye for it. Doranei had personally cut down one of the Brothers killed by Ilumene during his bloody defection. He hadn’t just murdered the man, he’d pinned the bastard to a wall using eight shortswords, then ritually disembowelled him and fed his heart to the man’s own dogs.
‘Sorry,’ he muttered, abashed. ‘You’re right.’
‘I know,’ Veil said airily, ‘and after this, you’n’me are going to get your shit in order, y’hear? Should be Sebe doin’ it, I know, but that’s not going to happen and he was my friend too. He’d want me in his stead to see the job done and I’ll be proud t’do it.’
Sebe, Doranei thought glumly, this life’s harder without you here. Maybe that’s what I’m impatient for. This war I can manage, been living with horror for too long as it is. Zhia I can handle, or survive her, at least. But do this all without the Brother I leaned on most of all? That’s harder than I’d realised.
‘I hear you,’ Doranei said in a quiet voice. He resumed his position, staring out toward the Menin, willing them on.
See you when the killing’s done, Brother.
Kastan Styrax walked out of his tent and stopped as the Bloodsworn knights who had camped around him in a protective ring raised their weapons and roared, their wordless fervour booming out all around and echoed back by the tens of thousands beyond.
He faced them silently, looking around at the cheering soldiers and matching their gaze. Wearing the black whorled armour of Koezh Vukotic he stood with his head uncovered and accepted their adulation. The thick black curls of his hair were tied back in the manner of a Menin nobleman, neatly, without frippery or adornment, while the ghost of a beard lay upon his cheeks. It was unusual for Lord Styrax not to be clean-shaven, but if anything he looked more Menin as a result.
Strapped to his back was the fanged broadsword he’d prised from the dead fingers of Lord Akass, his predecessor: the first great feat of many, and the one that had set him on this path. All those years ago - centuries, now - Kastan had realised it was true, that he was like no other mortal. His time in the Reavers had been not only for training and preparation, it had been a refuge against the weight of expectation placed on his shoulders when he had turned sixteen. That day he had been offered a glimpse of his true potential, the weapon the Gods intended him to be.
Even for a white-eye, it was almost too much to bear, Styrax thought as he let the waves of cheering crash over him. Even when I saw the Reavers were lesser kin, it was too much to ask of a boy.
Lord Styrax smiled, and with a deliberately slow movement he reached behind his head and drew the enormous black broadsword. The cheers became deafening and the élite Bloodsworn dropped to one knee, weapons touching the ground as their lord raised Kobra’s split tip to the sky and added his own booming voice to the tumult.
‘We go to war!’ Styrax roared as the thousands raised their own weapons. He turned slowly, watching the faces around him fill with fierce pride.
‘This long march has been hard,’ he called, pausing to give them all time to remember the stories of the tribe’s past, ‘and it is more than the weak who have fallen along the path!’
Deverk Grast had marched the Menin away from the West and ordered that the weak be allowed to fall at the wayside. Once the greatest of the seven tribes, the Menin had endured horrors in the Waste as they travelled to the Ring of Fire; they had nearly been broken as they tried to carve a new home in the wilderness. There were many sects within the tribe who saw this invasion as a return to glory; the rightful return to their place as the foremost of the tribes of man.
‘The pain has been the same for us all, the loss and the suffering shared among proud brothers!’
Styrax felt his face tighten. In his mind’s eye he saw Kohrad exchanging blows with Lord Isak, matching the silver-blurred stokes of the Farlan with all the fire and ferocity he’d possessed. He saw Kohrad struck and stagger, the emerald hilt of Eolis blazing through the storm of magic as he pitched backwards and fell.
‘The end is not yet in sight,’ he shouted, ‘but the reckoning has come. We have beaten all in our path, and when Narkang falls the spine of the West will be broken!
‘The Chetse we defeated, and they honoured us by joining our cause!
‘The Farlan we defeated, and they ran for home!’
Whistles and catcalls came from all around, then laughter. Styrax waited for the noise to abate, then went on, ‘The Farlan ran, and they will run again - but first we take down this self-anointed - a man too afraid to let his rabble of an army past their ditches to face us like men.
‘Show them how men fight, brothers; call the names of our fallen and show them the price of cowardice. We go to war!’
His last words were barely heard as the soldiers yelled in frenzied abandon. General Gaur signalled the drummers to beat to orders, but even the heavy thump of the huge wardrums was swallowed by the clamour. Only when the great curling horns of the Chetse legions sounded and the Menin drums repeated the command did it die down and order resume.
Styrax turned to Gaur and the beastman bowed awkwardly. General Vrill appeared behind him.
‘The legions have their orders?’ Styrax asked.
‘They have, my Lord,’ Vrill called, also bowing. The duke was ready for battle, the ribbons fixed to his white armour trembling in the dull morning light. ‘My infantry are moving out as I speak.’
‘Good. I’ll be counting on you to stir up a little confusion and panic.’
‘While you assault a fixed position,’ Vrill said pointedly. ‘While we both assault fixed positions, with our forces nicely divided.’
Styrax gave the small white-eye a sharp look and sheathed Kobra again. ‘Vrill, you may lecture me about dwindling supplies and lines of communication, or you may remind me of Erialave’s tenets of the field. You may not, however, do both.’
Vrill bowed, lower this time. ‘Apologies, my Lord. I remain yours to command. My concerns are for your safety, not my own.’
‘We’ve overswept his land and killed half his people - still think King Emin is going to conjure up a surprise we can’t handle?’ Styrax said with a slightly forced smile.
He knew Vrill was right about much, but they simply couldn’t wait to devise something intricate, nor could they evade the Narkang force - and he did not want to. Supplies were running dangerously low, and they needed a decisive victory, or they would begin to starve within the week. He’d given the order that there was to be no guard left with the baggage. One way or another, this day would be decisive. Styrax was certain his armies would show their worth.
‘I think a surprise doesn’t need to be your equal if it truly is a surprise - he possesses a Crystal Skull, according to Major Amber and — ’
‘And I have several!’ Styrax growled, ‘to say nothing of the fact none of his mages are my equal, nor Lord Larim’s nor, most likely, half of Larim’s acolytes.’
Vrill opened his mouth to argue, then shut it again with a snap. The decision was made and the most likely result of arguing further would be a swift death. ‘As you command, my Lord,’ he said in a tight, controlled voice. ‘Do you have final orders for me before I go to my command?’
Styrax, his hands balled into fists, made himself calm down. After a moment, he said, ‘Take your time. They’ll not come to you, so once you’ve cleared away the skirmishers you can negotiate the advance ditches slowly. Keep your formation and keep close to the tree-line. If they have cavalry hidden there they’ll run long before you reach them, for fear of being pinned down.’
Vrill looked up at the sky. It was still early and there was a blanket of thin cloud overhead. ‘A good thing they want to keep your wyvern on the ground,’ he commented. ‘There’s a lot of marching to do today; hot sun’s the last thing we’ll need.’
Styrax nodded. ‘With any luck they’ll keep the clouds there for us so I won’t have to.’ He offered a hand to his general who looked startled
for a moment before remembering himself and taking it. ‘Good hunting - if you break their line or draw them out, don’t hesitate. Keep a mage close and send me a message if they’re weakening; I’ll get their attention while you win the battle.’
Vrill couldn’t help but grin at the prospect, a flush of animation crossing his usually composed face. Lord Styrax was not a man who shared victory easily, but this he meant. Duke Vrill had the right flank; he had ten legions to march to the tree-line and in through the narrow channel King Emin had left on the edge of the forest: two thousand cavalry to protect his flank and eight thousand infantry to throw against the enemy line.
Once past the defensive ditches of the Narkang Army it would become brutal, bloody sword-work. With a breach, the quality of the Menin heavy infantry and the savagery of the Chetse élite axemen would come into their own.
‘Good luck to you too, my Lord,’ Vrill said with meaning.
The bulk of the army, double the number at Vrill’s command, would be directly assaulting the fort at the heart of the Narkang defences, marching straight towards the enemy on ground of the enemy’s choosing. A further six legions protected their left flank and rear, where the Narkang cavalry would be trying to make their greater numbers count.